PayPal Opens REST APIs to Rest of World

PayPal’s new REST APIs are now available for developers around the world to use, the online trading giant announced in a recent blog post. Previously, the REST versions of PayPal online payment APIs were only available to developers in the US.

PayPal offers a library of APIs that process payments, manage invoices, accounts, and more. Back in March, the company joined the 21st Century by introducing a modernized set of developer tools that included mobile SDKs, JavaScript PayPal Buttons, and new APIs built on REST, JSON and OAuth.

At first the REST APIs were only available in the U.S., but after six months of getting feedback, the company says the response to the new APIs has been “terrific” with over 50,000 developers implementing them.

Based on that feedback, the company has taken the next step in making those tools available outside of the US for anyone who wants to integrate PayPal payments in multiple currencies. PayPal REST APIs are now available in these countries.

Previous to this week, developers in other countries had to use PayPal’s “Classic APIs,” which is what the company is calling its old APIs. The Classic APIs are based on two main formats: SOAP and NVP.

In an FAQ, PayPal says it plans to keep its Classic APIs up to date and those who are using them can continue to do so. Eventually the company plans to replace all of its Classic APIs with RESTful ones, but for right now, some advanced payment solutions, such as parallel and recurring payments, are still only available in Classic APIs.

In another change, PayPal says that developers in the US, UK and Canada are now able to process credit card information with the REST API. Eventually developers in other countries will be able to do the same.

Interested in switching to the new APIs? You can access them through PayPal’s developer portal.